ChatGPT by OpenAI took the internet by storm in November 2022 when it was launched but it looks like it’s going to be competing with Google’s newly introduced AI-powered chatbot, Bard.
What is Bard?
Bard, much like it’s ChatGPT counterpart, is an AI-powered chatbot that can simulate human conversations using NLP (natural language processing) and ML (machine learning). It does this by drawing appropriate responses from the internet.
The main goal behind Bard was to create a chatbot that could retrieve information quickly through a simple answer, rather than fetching a bunch of search results, but with a twist: links are included to help users acquire more information should they choose to.
So how is it different or unique from ChatGPT? Does it offer any significant advantages?
Let’s discuss some key differences.
Bard vs. ChatGPT – Which one should you choose?
Both chatbots work along a similar mechanism: users key-in a query and receive a human-like response. The underlying difference between them, however, is that Bard draws it’s data from the internet so you can bet all the information you’re getting is up to date.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, draws data from sources no later than 2021, so it’s rather limited on the latest research and information. Plus, Bard has the ability to acquire more information in real time, as it can access the latest research via multiple Google searches.
While Bard has Google’s newest language model at the core, PaLM 2, ChatGPT uses the older GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 available only in the paid version.
Bard presents information in chunks while ChatGPT provides content in a single block of text.
Which one would be better for you, is the question then, isn’t it?
Well, let’s see some of their main attributes at a glance:
ChatGPT
- Can be accessed through the OpenAI site
- Free service with a paid option (ChatGPT Plus)
- Based on Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) which finds specific patterns within data sequences
- Available to everyone
- Answers questions by pulling data from sources up to 2021 or earlier
- Has a built-in plagiarism checker to ensure responses are unique
Bard
- Can be accessed through the Google Bard site but you do need to create a Google account
- Free service
- Based on PaLM 2 (Pathways Language Model) which uses reasoning, logic, and mathematics to find answers
- Available to everyone now (as of May 2023)
- Answers questions by pulling information from real-time sources from Google search
- No plagiarism detector
Which is better then?
To be deadly honest, it’s hard to choose just one chatbot which can be hailed as “better”, although that can be a matter of perspective and depends on what kind of information you want.
If you want content that is plagiarism-free, for example, but don’t mind that information being pulled from older resources, then ChatGPT may be an ideal choice. But if you want the latest information, all available from the latest most up-to-date sources but don’t mind the lack of a plagiarism detector, then Bard it is.
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